Wild Animal

Janira is a three-year-old girl who lives with her family on a goat farm. It soon becomes clear that she is different from her peers. Her speech isn’t as fluent as theirs, and she finds it hard to relate to other children. But her love of nature and animals is infinite. She prefers to spend her day among the goats and the chickens, and can’t bear it if they are in pain or missing.

When her parents discuss her so-called “delay,” Janira is out of the picture for a while, but otherwise the camera follows wherever she goes. No state of mind goes unrecorded—from horror at a minor operation on a goat, to irritation when boys in the schoolyard interrupt her play, to complete despair when one of the animals seems to have disappeared without a trace. The film observes her without judgement, but also reveals through her concerned parents how little room there is in society for unconventional behavior.